A whistleblower who can be assisted by the CPUC is an employee, contractor, or subcontractor of a company regulated by the Commission who reports his/her employer’s suspected unsafe, unlawful, or dishonest activity. Whistleblowers may report their allegations internally (for example, to their company’s upper management or to the company’s ethics officer) or externally to regulators responsible for oversight of the entity involved. A whistleblower’s inside knowledge of the suspected unlawful or dishonest activity may assist the Commission in uncovering otherwise undetectable wrongdoing. Whistleblowers can play a valuable role in helping the Commission obtain needed evidence to support the allegation.

The Commission regulates privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, railroad, rail transit, and passenger transportation companies. The Commission serves the public interest by protecting consumers and ensuring that utility services and infrastructure are safe, reliable and available at reasonable rates, with a commitment to environmental enhancement and a healthy California economy. The Commission is charged with ensuring that these regulated service providers comply with the California Public Utilities Code, Commission regulations, and other California laws involving safety and consumer protection. Commission investigations may involve safety issues, misrepresentations or dishonesty to the Commission, consumer fraud and marketing abuses, and tariff/rule violations.

If a whistleblower asks to remain anonymous, Commission staff will honor the whistleblower’s request to keep his or her identity confidential. Staff may need to obtain the whistleblower’s contact information for follow-up questions. If a whistleblower has documentation about the suspected unlawful behavior he or she is reporting, and can provide such documentation via electronic or hard copy, staff may not need to know the identity of the whistleblower. However, if the initial information provided proves to be insufficient to proceed with a more thorough investigation, and the whistleblower has declined to provide contact information, Commission staff may have difficulty proceeding with its investigation.

Commission staff does not have final control over whether to disclose an informant’s identity. A Commission action or a court of law could decide that, in a particular situation, disclosure of an informant’s identity would be in the public interest.

California
Labor Code Section 1102.5(b) protects whistleblowers from retaliation by the
employer where the employee has reasonable cause to believe that the information
discloses a violation of or noncompliance with state or federal
statute/rule/regulation.

In addition, Government
Code Section 12653 reads, in part, “No employer shall discharge, demote,
suspend, threaten, harass, deny promotion to, or in any other manner
discriminate against an employee because of lawful acts in disclosing
information to a government agency.”

The Commission upholds these protections, and it expects the companies it
regulates to abide by the law. As a practical matter, although these laws are
intended to protect whistleblowers, a whistleblower may still face the risk of
retaliation and may have to devote personal time and money to hire an attorney
to litigate matters of alleged retaliation.

A whistleblower is not protected from retaliation if he or she violates the
confidentiality of the lawyer-client privilege. (Labor Code section 1102.5(g).
Therefore, an informant should not disclose information identified as
privileged. In addition, California law does not protect disclosures made by
private sector employees that reveal a trade secret. Whistleblower laws
generally do not protect employees whose criticisms involve matters of personal
rather than public concern.

Finally, a prospective whistleblower should determine if the employer has
established internal procedures to handle whistleblower claims. If so, the
employee should review these procedures to determine how to proceed.

An employee, contractor, or subcontractor of a company regulated by the
Commission may report his/her employer’s suspected unsafe, unlawful, or
dishonest activity by phoning the Commission, by sending an e-mail with the
facts and/or documentation, or by reporting on-line. Use any one of the
following contacts, depending on the category of what is being reported. Please
be prepared to provide enough information to substantiate your claims of alleged
improper or unlawful behavior. If this information is not provided to the
Commission, the Commission will not be able to assist you in your case.

When you call 1-800-649-7570 you will hear a recording that directs you through a series of options. Depending on what number you press, you can get routed to a Safety Hotline, a Fraud Hotline, or other connections if you have an issue that is neither fraud- or safety-related.

Reporting Unsafe Conditions

A Whistleblower can report unsafe conditions to the CPUC by calling the whistleblower hotline at 1-800-649-7570 or by filing a Whistleblower Complaint online.

All others can report unsafe conditions to the CPUC by calling the whistleblower hotline at 1-800-649-7570 or by email to safetyhotline@cpuc.ca.gov

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